Atheist Nexus2016-12-10T04:02:23ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephShttp://api.ning.com:80/files/wWCfc0zEZZw-kdFSybh9cW8bJQp4rTAnDdIxcIm-QrbNdh2b03Ig1uecr-V02xQQgQqVF6gNL3y*XgHdvh2dTAi5D1OhAbLP/WWavatar.jpg?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/group/feministatheists/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=feministatheists&user=2212h7ukw07nd&feed=yes&xn_auth=noTV : Dumb Down, with a side of sexual assaulttag:atheistnexus.org,2016-10-11:2182797:Topic:27125102016-10-11T23:27:50.997ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/television-enables-trump" target="_blank">Trump's Reality Freak Show Rise Is Totally Television Dependent—but TV May Be His Demise as Well</a></p>
<p>Neal Gabler on tRump and pussygate. To me he's obviously right that TV as a medium hollows out content and degrades discourse. I was less aware, though I should have known, that Fox wasn't an exception in its structural misogyny.…</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/television-enables-trump" target="_blank">Trump's Reality Freak Show Rise Is Totally Television Dependent—but TV May Be His Demise as Well</a></p>
<p>Neal Gabler on tRump and pussygate. To me he's obviously right that TV as a medium hollows out content and degrades discourse. I was less aware, though I should have known, that Fox wasn't an exception in its structural misogyny.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/29168164412_de376a7e62_z.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/29168164412_de376a7e62_z.jpg" style="padding: 5px;" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Television has been Donald Trump’s enabler</strong> from the time he announced for the presidency. He was always the attention-deficit candidate in an attention-deficit age where television, especially cable television, required a 24/7 stream of news.</p>
<p><strong>TV has always hollowed out content and degraded discourse.</strong> That is its proclivity, and there are very few who have been able to buck it. <strong>From its inception, it has primarily been an entertainment medium, not an informational or educational one, and it has imposed its imperatives on our politics.</strong> In this campaign, we have gotten more political coverage than I can ever remember, and less coverage of issues.</p>
<p>Now we get Hillary’s emails and Trump’s videos. We get entertainment and distraction.</p>
<p>As the attention-deficit candidate for our times, Trump should win this election, since his opponent is obtuse enough to think that issues still matter.</p>
<p>His candidacy arose as a freak show, ...TV wants what it wants. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Access-Hollywood-Trump-Billy-Bush.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Access-Hollywood-Trump-Billy-Bush.jpg?width=400" class="align-center" width="400"/></a><a href="http://www.thewrap.com/how-access-hollywood-found-the-trump-tape-and-why-nbc-news-probably-leaked-it-exclusive/" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<blockquote><p>… the “Access Hollywood” tape … Every man has known <strong>guys like this – deeply insecure men who brag about their sexual conquests and their sexual ability</strong>.</p>
<p>It was all about power.</p>
<p>He was saying that he could do to women whatever he wanted because he was a “star.” And Bush played along – a toady and enabler.</p>
<p>Television – all entertainment, if you want to be frank about it – is a boys’ club. Men dominate, …</p>
<p>… <strong>Trump was enabled by television not only because television loves circuses like Trump, but because <span class="font-size-3">television is full of Trumps</span> who have also been enabled by television. For men in the industry, television and machismo often intermingle.</strong></p>
<p>Questions have arisen as to why NBC News didn’t race to release this incendiary material from “Access Hollywood,” which is owned by NBC. After all, they had the scoop of a major presidential candidate bragging about sexual assault.</p>
<p><strong>The network brass may have dragged their feet because this misogynistic, chest-puffing talk and behavior is so natural to the men who run television that they didn’t even recognize sexual predation when they saw it.</strong> [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That TV news is all about appearances, particularly men judging women as sex objects, grates on me every time I watch. Even the weather channel.</p>
<p>Women tend to be young, gorgeous, with tight fitting clothes and more bare skin.</p>
<p><a href="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/jennifer-delgado-amhq-980x551.jpg?v=ap&amp;w=980&amp;h=551&amp;api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" target="_blank"><img src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/jennifer-delgado-amhq-980x551.jpg?v=ap&amp;w=980&amp;h=551&amp;api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0&amp;width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a>Men tend to wear suits and don't <em>have</em> to be young and gorgeous.</p>
<p><a href="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/dr-greg-forbes-980x551.jpg?v=at&amp;w=485&amp;h=273&amp;api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" target="_blank"><img src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/dr-greg-forbes-980x551.jpg?v=at&amp;w=485&amp;h=273&amp;api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0&amp;width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a><a href="https://weather.com/tv/personalities/news/jennifer-delgado" target="_blank">images source</a></p> Misogynist A**holes in Ascendancytag:atheistnexus.org,2016-09-26:2182797:Topic:27107452016-09-26T23:27:01.179ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>Wendy Molyneux says it like it is in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/the-four-donald-trumps-you-meet-on-earth/501464/" target="_blank">The Four Donald Trumps You Meet on Earth</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">Donald Trump has said <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/">repugnant, insulting things</a> about women—over and over and over again—for as long as he’s been in the public eye.…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wendy Molyneux says it like it is in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/the-four-donald-trumps-you-meet-on-earth/501464/" target="_blank">The Four Donald Trumps You Meet on Earth</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">Donald Trump has said <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/">repugnant, insulting things</a> about women—over and over and over again—for as long as he’s been in the public eye. <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/donald-trump-said-a-lot-of-gross-things-about-women-on-howar?utm_term=.slNM33G6M#.raJPzzk5P">He has called</a> various women crazy, flat-chested, pigs. He refers to them as “<a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/the-absolute-trumpest-121328">pieces of ass</a>.”</p>
<p>“Women,” <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/the-absolute-trumpest-121328">he told <em>New York</em> magazine</a> in 1992. “You have to treat them like shit.”</p>
<p>Trump’s misogyny is shocking because it’s so brazen, but it’s infuriating because it’s so familiar.</p>
<p>The first time you meet Donald Trump, he’s an older male relative... You’re 9 years old. ..., he explains to you that black people are dangerous.</p>
<p>The next time you meet Donald Trump you’re in high school. He’s the first person who looks at you a certain way that will happen again and again for the rest of your life, as if he simultaneously can’t see you and would like to kill you. He ... enjoys saying “whore” to a roomful of children. A few years later, he gets fired for having sex with a student.</p>
<p>The next time you meet Donald Trump,...he’s your boss’s boss. A vice president in marketing who seemingly literally cannot stop talking. He’s on his third wife,... Sometimes during meetings he’ll turn away and open a magazine while someone is presenting. One time he comes to a halt in the middle of his own sentence to stare at a woman’s boobs... a truly aggressive boob-stare. When he finally gets fired years later, his HR file as fat as a pig knuckle, the rumor is he’s caught stealing his own office furniture on the weekend.</p>
<p>But then, it starts happening. The actual Trump—the real Donald Trump—...There he is, all the worst people you ever had to meet, and tolerate, and fight, or at least ignore.</p>
<p>And it makes you deranged, like almost actually deranged.</p>
<p>It makes you insane to look at him, to see that look on his face.... When he talks about black people, or Mexicans, like he simultaneously can’t see them and wants to kill them.</p>
<p>All those other Trumps are dead, or fired, or pleaded no contest to the charge of sex with a minor, or all of the above. Because they are disasters.</p>
<p>“There’s no one like him,” people say, “He’s unprecedented.” Maybe so, but <strong>I swear I’ve been dealing with this douchebag all my life</strong>, and let me tell you something: It doesn’t end well for him.</p>
<p>Because black people aren’t dangerous, and because their lives matter; because not every woman is a prostitute; and honestly because that furniture just isn’t yours, dude. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://pocho.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lalotrumpwomen.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://pocho.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lalotrumpwomen.png?width=300" class="align-center" width="300"/></a><a href="http://www.pocho.com/nominee-wannabe-trump-reveals-his-position-on-women-toon/" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>A complementary piece by tonyhellerexposed: <a href="https://tonyhellerakastevengoddardisnotasociopath.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/climate-deniers-like-me-are-assholes/" target="_blank">Climate Deniers Like Me Are Assholes</a></p>
<blockquote><p>We are all familiar with assholes. <strong>Driven by their own fears and insecurity, assholes posture themselves to look superior to others. By tearing others down, assholes attempt to build themselves up.</strong></p>
<p>... <strong>as people like Donald Trump</strong> and climate-change deniers like me <strong>demonstrate,</strong><strong>a new super strain of asshole is in ascendancy</strong>. Today’s media environment <a href="https://tonyhellerakastevengoddardisnotasociopath.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/the-dawn-of-hypbertribalism-how-the-internet-makes-donald-trump-and-climate-deniers-like-steve-goddard-possible/">provides a stage for us to mainline our juvenile stupidity and venom directly</a> to our audience and bypass existing societal defenses that used to thwart us. It’s now possible for assholes like me to take big, fat, public shits on others and their work with our own bullshit to sate our badly dysfunctional egos. Not only that, we are rewarded for our anti-social behavior with lots of attention and adulation from other idiots and assholes. They, in turn, mimic our behavior. As a result, our culture thrives and spreads like a cancer.</p>
<p>We can be polite, gracious and even self-effacing to the other assholes that agree with us but we behave like assholes toward just about everybody else if we can get away with it. That’s how we build community and solidarity with each other. The biggest assholes love other assholes like us who take their side of an argument even if our ideas have no basis in reality. Because it’s not our logical thought they embrace; they like us because we are assholes, just like them. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I feel that deranged reaction to Trump too. Hence, I stoop to posting name calling. That the polls are said to be even fuels my insanity. Because the GOP will try to steal this election, so even being close is dangerous. So dangerous.</p> Trolling against women and African-Americans = right wing "skills"tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-26:2182797:Topic:27057802016-08-26T04:04:45.448ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>War-like Internet attack campaigns, revenge porn attack on Leslie Jones' website, mockery, and millions of followers - a “gay <i>enfant terrible</i>” is one of tRump's top tier campaign operatives.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/leslie-jones-online-harassment-alt-right" target="_blank">They Want to Destroy Leslie Jones: Harassment Targeting 'Ghostbusters' Star Exposes the Ugliness Driving the New Right…</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>War-like Internet attack campaigns, revenge porn attack on Leslie Jones' website, mockery, and millions of followers - a “gay <i>enfant terrible</i>” is one of tRump's top tier campaign operatives.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/leslie-jones-online-harassment-alt-right" target="_blank">They Want to Destroy Leslie Jones: Harassment Targeting 'Ghostbusters' Star Exposes the Ugliness Driving the New Right</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/shutterstock_450258253.jpg"><img class="align-right" style="padding: 5px;" src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/shutterstock_450258253.jpg"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p>... it is hard to comprehend the level of obsessive hate that had to go into the attack on actress Leslie Jones. The 48-year-old comedian and actress became a big star over the summer, with her breakout role in “Ghostbusters” ...</p>
<p>But this story goes straight back to the presidential race. You see, one of the main reasons that Jones is a favorite target of the worst people on the internet is because <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/twitter-just-permanently-suspended-conservative-writer-milo?utm_term=.slbbJzNyj1#.yw5zyZ7Y21" target="_blank">she was chosen as one by Milo Yiannopoulos, a writer and editor at Breitbart</a>. He spent so much time and effort riling up the rats against her that it got him suspended permanently by Twitter, in fact. And Yiannopoulos’s boss Stephen Bannon now runs the Donald Trump campaign.</p>
<p>Make no mistake: <strong><span style="color: #993366;">Yiannopoulos</span></strong> got his job at Breitbart not despite, but <em>because</em> of <strong><span style="color: #993366;">his skills at whipping up the sociopathic internet into a frenzy of resentment at</span></strong> even the hint that they might have to share the world with <strong><span style="color: #993366;">women and people of color</span></strong>. [purple emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>11<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/11-right-wing-kooks-cranks-and-dirty-tricksters-around-donald-trump" target="_blank">Dangerous Right-Wing Kooks, Cranks and Operatives Surrounding Donald Trump</a></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Milo Yiannopoulos.</strong> Described by Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery as “the gay <i>enfant terrible</i>” of the right, Yiannapoulos, who works for Breitbart, <strong><span style="color: #339966;"><span style="color: #800080;">is Donald Trump’s LGBT champion</span>. </span></strong> [purple emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/d1Qao3A4yU4" target="_blank">Yiannopoulos</a>: "It's so much fun to wind up Atheists. They're so thin skinned. Like Feminists."</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/Uiiut-4QdDCK15T6y3wveTqYHp7N*EcNIplr9iQlPBvU6QHl6BzsA8ijxYfNFfHaEWgrhWRfs925DvgzZPo-kt3KJQxX-uQn/MiloY.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/Uiiut-4QdDCK15T6y3wveTqYHp7N*EcNIplr9iQlPBvU6QHl6BzsA8ijxYfNFfHaEWgrhWRfs925DvgzZPo-kt3KJQxX-uQn/MiloY.jpg" width="306"/></a>[screen grab from linked video]</p> Get evicted for calling 911tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-22:2182797:Topic:27052222016-08-22T08:56:25.861ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/washington-markup/town-near-you-people-are-being-evicted-their-homes-because-they-called-police" target="_blank">In a Town Near You, People Are Being Evicted From Their Homes Because They Called the Police for Help</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_main_wide_580x384/public/field_image/web16-blog-eviction-1160x768-v1.jpg?itok=QmFtWqKq" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_main_wide_580x384/public/field_image/web16-blog-eviction-1160x768-v1.jpg?itok=QmFtWqKq&amp;width=300" width="300"></img></a></p>
<blockquote><p>In cities and towns across the…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/washington-markup/town-near-you-people-are-being-evicted-their-homes-because-they-called-police" target="_blank">In a Town Near You, People Are Being Evicted From Their Homes Because They Called the Police for Help</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_main_wide_580x384/public/field_image/web16-blog-eviction-1160x768-v1.jpg?itok=QmFtWqKq"><img class="align-center" src="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_main_wide_580x384/public/field_image/web16-blog-eviction-1160x768-v1.jpg?itok=QmFtWqKq&amp;width=300" width="300"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p>In cities and towns across the country, little-known <strong>local laws penalize calls to the police and can get people kicked out of their homes</strong>. These laws create a perverted point system where every 911 call or report of criminal activity at a rental property counts as a strike against renters and their landlords. And it doesn’t matter whether people called the police for help or that they were the victim of the crime.</p>
<p>These laws go by different names: nuisance ordinances, crime-free ordinances, disorderly behavior ordinances. But they all do one thing: <strong>They tell landlords that unless they punish tenants for calling 911 or when a crime occurs in their homes, they will face steep fines, loss of rental permits, or property closure. Not surprisingly, landlords typically “abate” the “nuisance” by evicting the tenant and everyone in the home without any consideration of the circumstances that led to the call.</strong></p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/11/domestic-violence-victim-town-wanted-me-evicted-calling-911">Norristown, Pennsylvania</a>, a tenant’s boyfriend physically assaulted her, and she called 911. The police arrested her boyfriend but told her that <strong>if she made more calls to the police, she would be evicted</strong>. After this, the tenant was terrified to call the police despite her boyfriend’s escalating violence. <strong>When he came back again and stabbed her in the neck, her neighbors called the police and she was airlifted to the hospital. The city pressured her landlord to evict, and days later, she received an eviction notice.</strong></p>
In Binghamton, New York, <strong>a tenant was a victim of a home invasion and burglary</strong>, and his neighbor called the police. The tenant told the police that he didn’t know his assailants or why he was targeted. But <strong>the city cited the landlord, and the landlord assured city officials that all tenants in the building had been or would be evicted</strong>.</blockquote>
<blockquote>... <strong>these local laws have a disproportionate impact on victims of domestic violence</strong> by exacerbating housing insecurities that are unique to survivors — because securing and maintaining adequate housing is often challenging — and further increasing victims’ likelihood of becoming homeless. Additionally, while some nuisance ordinances are supposed to address crime in a community, they often undermine public safety by deterring crime victims and their neighbors from calling the police, emboldening the perpetrators. [emphasis mine]</blockquote>
<p>I quote <a target="_blank">a reddit comment</a> on this.</p>
<blockquote><p>I thought the fact that the police are there to protect the privileged and repress the masses was a bit more nuanced, but shit if it ain't written on the fuc*ing wall here.</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p> Men together make extreme choicestag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-05:2182797:Topic:27009932016-08-05T17:33:20.576ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>Women are free to compromise, but the drive to prove their masculinity might lead men to make decisions that they later regret.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160728195604.htm" target="_blank">Compromise nearly guaranteed when a woman is involved in decision-making pairs</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Compromise always occurs among two decision makers when a woman is involved (female pairs or mixed gender pairs) because compromise is consistent with feminine norms. It…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Women are free to compromise, but the drive to prove their masculinity might lead men to make decisions that they later regret.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160728195604.htm" target="_blank">Compromise nearly guaranteed when a woman is involved in decision-making pairs</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Compromise always occurs among two decision makers when a woman is involved (female pairs or mixed gender pairs) because compromise is consistent with feminine norms. It hardly ever occurs when the decision makers are both men because <strong>extremism is a more masculine trait</strong>; <strong>men tend to</strong> push away from compromise options and <strong>choose extreme options in order to prove their masculinity in presence of other men</strong>,...</p>
<p>... a new study ... finds that compromise always occurs among two decision makers when a woman is involved (female-female pairs or mixed gender pairs), but hardly ever when the pair of decision makers are men.</p>
<p>"In contrast to men," says Nikolova, "<strong>women act the same together as they would alone because they don't need to prove anything in front of other women. Womanhood is not precarious and does not need the same level of public defense as manhood</strong>. That's why we observe the compromise effect in the joint decisions of two female partners."</p>
<p>Interestingly, the research found that compromise is criticized among other men, but embraced by women.</p>
<p>"Only men judge other men very harshly when they suggest the compromise option to a male partner,"... [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.wrightslaw.com/images/istock/man.angry.sm.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.wrightslaw.com/images/istock/man.angry.sm.jpg"/></a><a href="http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/letters.draft.htm" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>Wouldn't this also apply to politics? If you send all male negotiation teams to negotiate a truce, their hands are tied behind their backs. If both parties actually want a truce, both should send in mixed gender teams.</p>
<p>In fact negotiation is ubiquitous in politics, yet it's male dominated. The entire society would run more smoothly, in my view, if women occupied half of all power positions.</p>
<p>Of course this information is used to guide <em>manipulation</em> of consumers, in the <em>Journal of Consumer Research.</em> We can see that it has broader application.</p> Male Movie Critics Pan Female-Centric Plotstag:atheistnexus.org,2016-07-15:2182797:Topic:26974422016-07-15T01:05:28.108ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/movies-starring-women-get-slimed-male-critics" target="_blank">The Growing Gender Divide Over 'Ghostbusters': Why Movies Starring Women Get Slimed by Male Critics</a></p>
<p>Feminists, you always knew this about movie reviews, didn't you? As Meryl Streep says,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Women are so used to that active empathizing with the active protagonist of a male-driven plot,” Meryl Streep said during a 2015 panel. “That’s what we’ve done all our lives.…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/movies-starring-women-get-slimed-male-critics" target="_blank">The Growing Gender Divide Over 'Ghostbusters': Why Movies Starring Women Get Slimed by Male Critics</a></p>
<p>Feminists, you always knew this about movie reviews, didn't you? As Meryl Streep says,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Women are so used to that active empathizing with the active protagonist of a male-driven plot,” Meryl Streep said during a 2015 panel. “That’s what we’ve done all our lives. You read history, you read great literature, Shakespeare, it’s all fellas. But they’ve never had to do the other thing. .... It’s very hard thing for them to put themselves in the shoes of female protagonist.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Movie critics are mostly men. Male critics give bad reviews to movies with female-driven plots.</p>
<blockquote><p>Because film criticism is so male-dominated, men have a disproportionate say—especially on movies about women.</p>
<p>Because men are commonly treated as the default in movies—the everyman who stands in for the audience—they rarely are forced to empathize with others’ perspectives. <strong>If cinema does not reflect men’s experiences, it can,</strong> thus, <strong>be difficult for male audience members to see themselves in the picture</strong> in the way women are forced to. <strong>That affects</strong> not only the way that men interact with movies but also <strong>how they review them</strong>.</p>
<p>If all things were equal, men and women would then approve and disapprove of movies at roughly equal rates.</p>
<p>Looking at female-driven vehicles released over the last decade, it’s rare to find one that received equal appraisals from both men and women. Female critics were overwhelmingly positive about “Pitch Perfect,” the 2012 sleeper hit starring Anna Kendrick as a reluctant member of a ragtag female a cappella group. Ninety-three percent of women reviewers liked it, but their male colleagues were less enthusiastic: 94 percent of thumbs-down scores came from men. [emphasis mine]</p>
<p></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The new Ghostbusters movie has great reviews from women.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w3ugHP-yZXw?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p>
<blockquote><p></p>
</blockquote> Abuser Tactics in National Politicstag:atheistnexus.org,2016-06-16:2182797:Topic:26922792016-06-16T23:17:27.992ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>Ann Jones spells out how the presumptive GOP nominee fits the controlling, abusive man profile. See her article on his using "methods of coercion".</p>
<blockquote><p>Every woman who has ever had to deal with a Trump-style-tyrant in her own home or at her job already has Trump’s number. We recognize him as a bloated specimen of the common garden variety Controlling Man, a familiar type of Household Hitler.</p>
<p>In fact, Donald J. Trump perfectly fits the profile of an ordinary wife…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ann Jones spells out how the presumptive GOP nominee fits the controlling, abusive man profile. See her article on his using "methods of coercion".</p>
<blockquote><p>Every woman who has ever had to deal with a Trump-style-tyrant in her own home or at her job already has Trump’s number. We recognize him as a bloated specimen of the common garden variety Controlling Man, a familiar type of Household Hitler.</p>
<p>In fact, Donald J. Trump perfectly fits the profile of an ordinary wife abuser—with one additional twist. … Trump has not confined his controlling tactics to his own home(s). For seven years, he practiced them openly for all the world to see …,and now applies them on a national stage, commanding constant attention while alternately insulting, cajoling, demeaning, embracing, patronizing, and verbally beating up anyone (including a <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-keeps-up-attacks-on-judge-gonzalo-curiel-1464911442" target="_blank">“Mexican” judge</a>) who stands in the way of his coronation.</p>
<p>In the current extraordinary electoral process, we have been spectators at the performances of a man skilled in the sort of coercive tactics designed to control prisoners and hostages, and ruthlessly applied to the criminal abuse of women. We have watched that man put those tactics to use in plain sight to vanquish his opponents and force to his side the battered remnants of a major political party and a significant part of the electorate.</p>
<p>Trump has been at it for months on national television -- and no journalist, no politician, no Republican Party leader, no contender has named his behavior for what it is.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dominiquediprima.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/donald_trump1-300x296.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.dominiquediprima.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/donald_trump1-300x296.jpg"/></a><a href="http://www.dominiquediprima.com/?p=2154" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/women-see-through-donald-trumps-act" target="_blank">Most Women Are Crystal Clear About Trump: He Is Their Worst Nightmare</a></p>
<p>For example,</p>
<blockquote><p>... <strong>the controller “<a href="http://www.nwrain.net/%7Erefocus/coerchrt.html" target="_blank">monopolizes the perception</a>” of the targeted victims; that is, he draws all attention to himself</strong>. He strives to eliminate any distractions competing for the viewers’/victims’ attention (think: Jeb, John, Chris, Ted, Carly, and crew), and he behaves with enough inconsistency to keep his potential victims off-balance, focused on him alone,...</p>
<p>Trump has used such tactics gleefully. The TV networks, like the media generally, and the Republican establishment thought his candidacy was a joke, yet in the process of publicizing that joke, they gave him an estimated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html" target="_blank">$2 billion</a> in free air time.</p>
<p>... , <strong>the networks</strong> cited the bottom line. ... they <strong>made him a daily inescapable presence in our lives.</strong> [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Were you annoyed that you couldn't get away from that irritating braggart for months? That he was ubiquitous not only on TV, but even here, as AN members reacted. This discussion continues that insidious monopoly of your attention. &lt;sorry&gt;</p>
<p></p> Career vs Babies from The Oniontag:atheistnexus.org,2016-06-13:2182797:Topic:26914992016-06-13T18:08:14.502ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p><a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/career-spider-not-sure-shes-ready-for-3000-childre-30840" target="_blank">Career Spider Not Sure She's Ready For 3,000 Children At This Point</a></p>
<p>This laugh is for women.</p>
<blockquote><p>Thryssskmsss, a 2-year-old barn funnel weaver spider, confided to friends Wednesday that <strong>she isn’t sure she’s ready for 3,000 children at this point in her life</strong>. “There’s so much I want to do—explore the world’s dark cracks, visit the…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/career-spider-not-sure-shes-ready-for-3000-childre-30840" target="_blank">Career Spider Not Sure She's Ready For 3,000 Children At This Point</a></p>
<p>This laugh is for women.</p>
<blockquote><p>Thryssskmsss, a 2-year-old barn funnel weaver spider, confided to friends Wednesday that <strong>she isn’t sure she’s ready for 3,000 children at this point in her life</strong>. “There’s so much I want to do—explore the world’s dark cracks, visit the drainpipes, see what it’s like to eat a dragonfly—but I can’t do those things if I’ve got several hundred spiderlings clinging to every leg,” the spider said from the eaves of her Columbus home. “If I had 3,000 hungry mandibles to feed, I’d be in the web catching flies all day, and that’s just not where I’m at right now.” Thryssskmsss added that she expects one day she’ll be ready to settle down and find a nice male to mate with and then devour. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://i.onionstatic.com/onion/1918/4/16x9/800.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://i.onionstatic.com/onion/1918/4/16x9/800.jpg?width=400" width="400"/></a></p>
<p></p> Oklahoma to outlaw abortion, hoping to overturn Roe v. Wadetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-05-20:2182797:Topic:26869602016-05-20T19:32:42.996ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>This is not a Poe.</p>
<p>Yesterday the Oklahoma legislature passed a bill that would make it <strong>a felony for doctors to perform any abortion</strong>, except to save the woman's life. Doctors who perform an abortion would also be denied medical licenses.</p>
<p>The bill <em>'passed 33-12 Thursday with no discussion or debate; a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against the bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm.</em></p>
<p><em>Oklahoma <strong>Gov. Mary…</strong></em></p>
<p>This is not a Poe.</p>
<p>Yesterday the Oklahoma legislature passed a bill that would make it <strong>a felony for doctors to perform any abortion</strong>, except to save the woman's life. Doctors who perform an abortion would also be denied medical licenses.</p>
<p>The bill <em>'passed 33-12 Thursday with no discussion or debate; a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against the bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm.</em></p>
<p><em>Oklahoma <strong>Gov. Mary Fallin, an anti-abortion Republican, has until Wednesday to sign the bill into law or veto it.</strong> Spokesman Michael McNutt said <strong>she also could also allow the bill to become law "without approval"</strong> after the five-day period has elapsed. He also said she will withhold comment until her staff has time to review it.</em></p>
<p><em>Dahm made it clear that <strong>he hopes his bill could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade.</strong>'</em> (<a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_ABORTION_BAN_OKLAHOMA" target="_blank">AP</a>)</p>
<p>This comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against an initiative effort that would have outlawed abortion as homicide. <em>'The Oklahoma court said [in March] that a proposed initiative petition was in contradiction to their understanding of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, such as <em>Roe v. Wade</em>, and would therefore not be allowed to go to the voters of Oklahoma in the Fall. The court said it “is not free to impose its own view of the law” — an obvious reference to its deference to the U.S. Supreme Court.'</em> (<a href="http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/22835-oklahoma-supreme-court-nixes-effort-to-outlaw-abortion" target="_blank">The New American</a>)</p>
<p class="p1"><em>'The governor has a strong track record of restricting access to abortion in Oklahoma. The state currently has only two operating abortion clinics, placing it on par with other conservative states where the accessibility of reproductive health care has dwindled to virtually null.</em></p>
<p class="p1"><em>Still, as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/opinion/oklahomas-unabashed-attack-on-abortion.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> Editorial Board points out, at least <strong>Oklahoma is effectively banning abortion “without offering any pretense of trying to protect women’s health.”</strong> Conservative legislatures across the United States consistently chip away at the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade under the guise of protecting women. Forty-three states prohibit abortions generally [sic], imposing restrictions including gestation limits, physician and hospital requirements, and state-mandated counseling.</em></p>
<p class="p1"><em>So at least Oklahoma is being honest about its intentions....'</em> (<a href="http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/oklahoma-makes-it-felony-perform-abortions" target="_blank">Alternet</a>)</p>
<p class="p1"><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/JPrUh3-6xrT7bXycWZRNwa6WkirIBrnrzGUF0pBmzbJV1azV1x2PIdajlUTBcbPjsz5Ad42f8A*q2D3HN0mZ9vKO9xdMWPTX/priestwithJailAbortionistssign.jpg"><img class="align-full" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/JPrUh3-6xrT7bXycWZRNwa6WkirIBrnrzGUF0pBmzbJV1azV1x2PIdajlUTBcbPjsz5Ad42f8A*q2D3HN0mZ9vKO9xdMWPTX/priestwithJailAbortionistssign.jpg" width="310"/></a>(<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Spitz_holds_anti-abortion_sign.jpg" target="_blank">image source</a>)</p>
<p class="p1">(<a href="http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/oklahoma-makes-it-felony-perform-abortions" target="_blank"><strong>read the entire <em>Alternet</em> article</strong></a>)</p> I Used a Hanger (Daily Kos)tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-04-05:2182797:Topic:26784702016-04-05T22:03:07.298ZSteph S.http://atheistnexus.org/profile/StephS
<p>The following is an extract from an article on The Daily Kos:<br></br> <br></br> <em>We thought we had finally gotten the contraception thing down when I awoke one morning in 1971 knowing I was pregnant again. I knew , too, that I could not go through that again.</em><br></br> <br></br> <em>Abortion was illegal. Roe vs. Wade wasn’t even on the horizon. We’d both been raised in very strictly religious families. It didn’t even occur to me to go see Dr. H. I couldn’t tell anyone, not even my husband. I knew I…</em></p>
<p>The following is an extract from an article on The Daily Kos:<br/> <br/> <em>We thought we had finally gotten the contraception thing down when I awoke one morning in 1971 knowing I was pregnant again. I knew , too, that I could not go through that again.</em><br/> <br/> <em>Abortion was illegal. Roe vs. Wade wasn’t even on the horizon. We’d both been raised in very strictly religious families. It didn’t even occur to me to go see Dr. H. I couldn’t tell anyone, not even my husband. I knew I had to take care of this immediately on my own.</em><br/> <br/> <em>I’d seen the device Dr. H. had used for a dilation and curettage known as a D&amp;C, the procedure doctors use to remove uterine contents. And I’d heard of hangers being used for abortions. I thought a hanger would make a useful D&amp;C.</em><br/> <br/> <em>I didn’t feel any pain, but I knew I’d punctured the uterine wall when I felt sort of a pop. I was wrong about the hanger, but I still expected everything to be okay.</em><br/> <br/> Read the full piece <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/3/1509881/-I-used-a-hanger" target="_blank">here</a>.<br/> <br/> <br/> ===============================================<br/> <br/> <br/> Minor spoiler: everything wasn't okay.<br/> <br/> I've heard references to wire hangers and abortion since I was a teen, I suspect. Never once had I ever actually heard a first-person story about an actual incident where someone used a wire hanger to that purpose. The woman writing this article, however, comes across as nothing other than genuine, and based on her testimony, she wasn't the only one she knew of.<br/> <br/> And now 40+ years after <em>Roe v Wade</em>, there is active talk about rescinding that decision. With that would return the age of the back alley abortion and wire hangers. It would also reinstitute the practice of those with means going to either Canada or Mexico to get their procedures done. Worse, there are noises being made about birth control being abortifacients and that they need to be sanctioned as well.<br/> <br/> I'm a man who will never get pregnant ... and this pisses me off after a fashion you don't want to guess at. It is past time that religious influence on women's rights plainly and simply ENDED ... FULL STOP.</p>